Devante Smith-Pelly didn’t come to Calgary with excuses or baggage.
Soft-spoken, brutally honest, and full of life lessons after being served one heckuva reality check last season, the 27-year-old bash-and-crash winger is in this city simply trying to earn himself a job for the 2019-20 National Hockey League campaign.

Later this week, it’ll be a whole lot tougher to stand out.
The Calgary Flames’ rookie-campers should, though, be feeling good about their games after Tuesday’s final tuneup — a 3-1 victory over the Edmonton Oilers’ up-and-comers at the Saddledome.

Dustin Wolf’s draft day story is emotional and well-documented.
It was the culmination of a road that was born while he was watching Miikka Kiprusoff stop pucks during in his (brief) San Jose days, a dream nurtured by his parents, Mike and Michelle, with a move to Hermosa Beach, Calif.

Calgary Flames forward prospect Martin Pospisil has never backed down from a challenge.
Good thing, because the almost-unheard-of leap from the Junior-A level United States Hockey League (USHL) to the professional ranks will certainly be that.

The Calgary Flames most popular left-winger is back — and bearded.
“I was a little lazy all summer,” Johnny Gaudreau said with a chuckle following a casual skate at WinSport Arena with a collection of teammates and veterans who are filing into the city for the kick-off of the 2019-20 campaign.

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There is plenty of footage to work with.
Over 150 big league game’s worth.
But the most recent stuff, the Calgary Flames’ springtime exit from the post-season dance, was the perfect material Calgary Flames skating coach Dawn Braid needed to show Mark Jankowski ways he can improve.

When the topic of the Calgary Flames blueline arose this off-season, where did the conversation go?
The (‘Young and fresh’) reigning Norris Trophy winner?
The solid second pairing of Noah Hanifin and Travis Hamonic?
The emergence of Rasmus Andersson?
The up-and-coming Juuso Valimaki and his unfortunate summertime knee injury?
If you didn’t, however, mention the oft-forgotten Oliver Kylington and the progression of the 22-year-old whip-smart defenceman, that is OK.

Jon Gillies has gone from being the goalie of the future to being unsure of his own future.
It seems the 25-year-old is at a crossroads with the Calgary Flames, an organization he’s been with since 2012 after Jay Feaster selected the lanky netminder bound for Providence College in the third round and 75th overall.

It was just the first practice of the season.
But it confirmed that feisty forward Sam Bennett, as expected, is first in line for a promotion if Matthew Tkachuk’s contract stalemate drags into October.

Nikolaj Ehlers wasn’t buying the argument.
No way. No how.
Are you kidding, he asked. Like, for real?
We were sitting at a table inside a Chicago hotel boardroom and talking about the many moves that the Florida Panthers made this past summer — such as hiring a head coach with three Stanley Cup rings and signing a two-time Vezina Trophy winning goalie — and how it beefed up what I had already considered to be the toughest division in the NHL.

It wasn’t supposed to be this way.
Juuso Valimaki was supposed to come into the 2019-20 Calgary Flames training camp in the best shape of his life, bound and determined to play an entire 82-game slate in the National Hockey League.

The boys are back.
Except, that is, for two of ’em.
With all due respect to the newly-minted Norris Trophy winner, the newly bearded superstar and the rest of the guys who will step on the ice Friday at the Saddledome, the biggest storyline of Calgary Flames’ training camp is the waiting game for the final arrivals.